How are you using leds on ergodox? On mine with black keycaps from massdrop is led light invisible even on acrylic case :/

LEDs under keys shine out the side of the keys, yes it's not very visible. If you put white keycaps they will show a lot better. The orange LED on the teensy itself is not used by the firmware as is, but you can modify the firmware to make use of it. In my case, I make it light up when I'm out of the default layer... see code patch posted earlier in this thread.

How are you using leds on ergodox? On mine with black keycaps from massdrop is led light invisible even on acrylic case :/

LEDs under keys shine out the side of the keys, yes it's not very visible. If you put white keycaps they will show a lot better. The orange LED on the teensy itself is not used by the firmware as is, but you can modify the firmware to make use of it. In my case, I make it light up when I'm out of the default layer... see code patch posted earlier in this thread.

How are you using leds on ergodox? On mine with black keycaps from massdrop is led light invisible even on acrylic case :/

LEDs under keys shine out the side of the keys, yes it's not very visible. If you put white keycaps they will show a lot better. The orange LED on the teensy itself is not used by the firmware as is, but you can modify the firmware to make use of it. In my case, I make it light up when I'm out of the default layer... see code patch posted earlier in this thread.

yeah, but black caps are more beautiful led on teensy is good idea but still i want some use of bundled leds when I soldered it )

How are you using leds on ergodox? On mine with black keycaps from massdrop is led light invisible even on acrylic case :/

LEDs under keys shine out the side of the keys, yes it's not very visible. If you put white keycaps they will show a lot better. The orange LED on the teensy itself is not used by the firmware as is, but you can modify the firmware to make use of it. In my case, I make it light up when I'm out of the default layer... see code patch posted earlier in this thread.

yeah, but black caps are more beautiful led on teensy is good idea but still i want some use of bundled leds when I soldered it )

If you're up to it, you could always drill a (very) small hole through those keycaps to let the light shine through.

Is anyone interested in running with this information? I would but I still need to spam post more in order to run a group buy. I think we could probably get up to at least 50 keys without much problems with all of the people in the two rounds of ErgoDox buys (and considering that each purchase will be of at least 2 keys).

If you are interested, please make a thread in the interest check section so we can post that link on massdrop and elsewhere.

Is anyone interested in running with this information? I would but I still need to spam post more in order to run a group buy. I think we could probably get up to at least 50 keys without much problems with all of the people in the two rounds of ErgoDox buys (and considering that each purchase will be of at least 2 keys).

If you are interested, please make a thread in the interest check section so we can post that link on massdrop and elsewhere.

I can't type yes enough times without making everyone scroll forever to read it. One of my two perceived dox flaws is fixed.

Now to find a way to get a case that doesn't look that unprofessional for less than the cost of a whole second board.

Is anyone interested in running with this information? I would but I still need to spam post more in order to run a group buy. I think we could probably get up to at least 50 keys without much problems with all of the people in the two rounds of ErgoDox buys (and considering that each purchase will be of at least 2 keys).

If you are interested, please make a thread in the interest check section so we can post that link on massdrop and elsewhere.

Considering I'll need 24 myself, I think it'll be quite easy to reach beyond 50 keys. I could make the IC thread, but I'll wait to see if one of the more active members wants to take up the mantle of handling a group buy.

Is anyone interested in running with this information? I would but I still need to spam post more in order to run a group buy. I think we could probably get up to at least 50 keys without much problems with all of the people in the two rounds of ErgoDox buys (and considering that each purchase will be of at least 2 keys).

If you are interested, please make a thread in the interest check section so we can post that link on massdrop and elsewhere.

Considering I'll need 24 myself, I think it'll be quite easy to reach beyond 50 keys. I could make the IC thread, but I'll wait to see if one of the more active members wants to take up the mantle of handling a group buy.

I'm creating four keyboards (two for myself, one for my sister, one for a friend) - three of which are using the PBT DSA sets.

Oh, and while I'm thinking about it... Sordna, how are you liking the artificial click noise? I have it engaged on my Kinesis, but in that case the sound is centered between the wells. I'm not sure how my mind would perceive a click coming from the far right when my left hand hits a key.

You could, but after using the Kinesis for so long, I can't imagine downgrading to that experience. Unlike the nubs which are a necessary evil, the deep dish actually feel nice to be on. Why not give all fingers the royal treatment.

How are you using leds on ergodox? On mine with black keycaps from massdrop is led light invisible even on acrylic case :/

LEDs under keys shine out the side of the keys, yes it's not very visible. If you put white keycaps they will show a lot better. The orange LED on the teensy itself is not used by the firmware as is, but you can modify the firmware to make use of it. In my case, I make it light up when I'm out of the default layer... see code patch posted earlier in this thread.

yeah, but black caps are more beautiful led on teensy is good idea but still i want some use of bundled leds when I soldered it )

If you're up to it, you could always drill a (very) small hole through those keycaps to let the light shine through.

I haven't got around to building mine yet and thought it unseemly to have in-key LEDs indicating states unrelated to the key they're under, so I'm thinking of swapping the switch-mounted LEDs with their resistors -- i.e., putting the LEDs where their respective resistors would normally go (just to the left of the Teensy) and vice-versa (most likely putting the resistors on the underside of the PCB and soldering them same-side). They're series circuits, so I think it should work, just gotta take care to maintain proper LED polarity (I gather the + leads should point towards the Teensy), and of course some creative bending of the leads will be necessary to accommodate the solder pad spacing on the PCB. Maybe I should get higher-ohm resistors to dim the LEDs more, since they'd be naked instead of shielded by the keycaps?

Another approach I'm considering is leaving the LEDs soldered where they would normally go, but putting them under the PCB (rather than thru the switches) and leaving long enough leads to bend them over to the left edge of the PCB, so when illuminated they would shine into the left edge of the case.

« Last Edit: Tue, 16 April 2013, 17:03:05 by SubGothius »

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"In theory there's no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is." -Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut

I haven't got around to building mine yet and thought it unseemly to have in-key LEDs indicating states unrelated to the key they're under, so I'm thinking of swapping the switch-mounted LEDs with their resistors -- i.e., putting the LEDs where their respective resistors would normally go (just to the left of the Teensy) and vice-versa (most likely putting the resistors on the underside of the PCB and soldering them same-side). They're series circuits, so I think it should work, just gotta take care to maintain proper LED polarity (I gather the + leads should point towards the Teensy), and of course some creative bending of the leads will be necessary to accommodate the solder pad spacing on the PCB. Maybe I should get higher-ohm resistors to dim the LEDs more, since they'd be naked instead of shielded by the keycaps?

Another approach I'm considering is leaving the LEDs soldered where they would normally go, but putting them under the PCB (rather than thru the switches) and leaving long enough leads to bend them over to the left edge of the PCB, so when illuminated they would shine into the left edge of the case.

I've kinda wished at times that the LEDs were up at the top too, but not enough to mod it. It'd be nice to see pics of how it goes, if you do - maybe I'll build one of my other kits that way :-) .

About making them dimmer: higher ohm resistors would work of course, but you could also do it in the firmware. All the indicator LEDs are PWMed. It'd just be a matter of changing this line to something smaller than 0.5, and recompiling.

For the LEDs on my aluminum version, I plan on relocating them to the top via wires soldered to the bottom of the board. Small holes will then be drilled through the top plate with a small amount of fiber optic cable serving as a light guide. Each LED will be compartmentalized so that light doesn't overflow from one LED to the other. I'm also planning on making use of the extra Teensy pins to drive more LEDs, and re-purposing them as layer indicators vs caps-lock/num-lock/etc. Layer indication is more useful on a board like the ErgoDox than key state.

Hey guys,I just finished with the right side of my keyboard and just had to test if it works. And I'm amazed, all keys work!

I only wonder about the LED of the Num key (from standard layout, switch 5:6). It's glowing non-stop, also if I push the button.Is that normal?

Well, I'd say that a) your numlock key isn't functioning, and you just happen to have numlock on b) you soldered one leg of the LED into the diode's through-hole spot, so it's getting lit up by the matrix scanning (pretty sure this is possible, can't get the PCB the right way up in my viewer...) or c) something's wrong with your microcontroller.

I emailed SP about a mass order and the following prices were given (bare in mind that these do not include shipping costs):

5 keys $10.70 each10 keys $5.60 each...500 keys $0.61 each

I think we could probably get up to at least 50 keys without much problems with all of the people in the two rounds of ErgoDox buys (and considering that each purchase will be of at least 2 keys).

i keep trawling ebay, wasd, etc looking at printed caps, but this does interest me. as a kinesis user i like the whole home set being deep jobbies, so i'd probably be after 8, maybe 16 to have some ready for the 2nd one i build depending on price.

i keep trawling ebay, wasd, etc looking at printed caps, but this does interest me. as a kinesis user i like the whole home set being deep jobbies, so i'd probably be after 8, maybe 16 to have some ready for the 2nd one i build depending on price.

Great! It sounds like we could push a group buy through fairly quickly and still get a pretty good price on the keycaps.

i keep trawling ebay, wasd, etc looking at printed caps, but this does interest me. as a kinesis user i like the whole home set being deep jobbies, so i'd probably be after 8, maybe 16 to have some ready for the 2nd one i build depending on price.

Great! It sounds like we could push a group buy through fairly quickly and still get a pretty good price on the keycaps.

In the interim, Signature Plastics has ~153 "DSA - 1X W/ HOMING BUMP - CREAM (WCX)" in stock for $1 a key + S&H. If you can't wait for deep dish keys and don't want to add superglue nubs, this could be a quick stopgap for adding homing keys with a bump and a different color.

i keep trawling ebay, wasd, etc looking at printed caps, but this does interest me. as a kinesis user i like the whole home set being deep jobbies, so i'd probably be after 8, maybe 16 to have some ready for the 2nd one i build depending on price.

Great! It sounds like we could push a group buy through fairly quickly and still get a pretty good price on the keycaps.

In the interim, Signature Plastics has ~153 "DSA - 1X W/ HOMING BUMP - CREAM (WCX)" in stock for $1 a key + S&H. If you can't wait for deep dish keys and don't want to add superglue nubs, this could be a quick stopgap for adding homing keys with a bump and a different color.

ooh, good point. something other than black might be good, those kinesis guys know what they're doing it seems:

Show Image

Would be a matter of getting everybody happy with a given color, and PBT colors aren't quite as vivid as the ABS keys used on the Kinesis. Still, even with plain black, it's easy enough to figure out by key shape alone. The deep dish keys have a slightly higher edge ridge, smaller key face, and deeper concave shape. They're different enough to both feel and see the difference.

@wasabah,SubGothiusWe should really make a sub folder on the repository for the layouts, and only the most populars. Of course, we need to finish the ECMAScript KB mapper. I just need the time make a cli option for this, maybe even using xmodmap as the interface.

Many thanks to all of the contributors to the ErgoDox Project. I got the firmware loaded last night and was honestly surprised when I hit a key and a letter registered. It's like it came to life before my eyes. I wonder if it was like that for Dr. Frankenstein. I confess, I was giddy. I didn't question the design, only my inexperience working with electronics and my lack of digital savvy. Fortunately, the fine Massdrop instructions and a lot of wise advice from the Geekhack group prevailed.

I'm working on a tray for the ErgoDox Twins and would like to modify an old Expert Mouse to fit between them. The E.M. switches have three wires and the ones I hope to use have two. I assume this has to do with the additional commands it can send by pressing two switches simultaneously.

If I'm not interested in the tandem press option, only the four single press commands, do you think these single pole switches will work?

it looks great how its going. i would be really interested how it turns out, maybe get some vinyl wrap, like fake carbon fiber, that you use a heat gun to apply to finish it off making it look like a single unit. i dunno just talking without really thinking

Is there a collection of firmwares online?This would be a fairly nice thing to be able to browse through layouts, pick one that suits you and install it.

Edit: I'm looking for a German layout, anybody implemented one?

My understanding is that creating a firmware that doesn't use the codes supported by the usb standard will not be possible. This is what Ben, the firmware developer stated on MassDrop:

Quote

Unicode characters are not supported in firmware - and can't be, as far as I've been able to see. The people that designed the spec for USB keyboards decided to have them send scan codes (just like keyboards have since the beginning of time, I think) instead of UTF-8 characters. I'm kind of mad at them for that too, lol.Also, to those wanting international layouts: the USB spec doesn't define those characters explicitly - it defines a more or less US layout + some "international" keys and other things, and expects the rest to be handled in software (for the convenience of hardware manufacturers). So, good news is that your layout is supported by the firmware. Bad news is that I can't tell you how to do it without resorting to Unixish programs and modifying C code - hopefully Jasper's able to get the configurator to detect the keys (though, testing for the detection of keys on keyboards not readily available in the US probably isn't the easiest thing to do - something to bear in mind), or someone else has easier ideas for determining the keycodes and looking up their names in the configurator

it looks great how its going. i would be really interested how it turns out, maybe get some vinyl wrap, like fake carbon fiber, that you use a heat gun to apply to finish it off making it look like a single unit. i dunno just talking without really thinking

*thumbs up*

Thanks Glod. I've appreciated your enthusiasm over the EgdoDox these last few months.

Ah... I thought the whole point of the ergo dox was to be able to separate them farther apart..

So, now you put them "BACK" together like the kinesis? why not just get a kinesis then

It's funny you should say that. I thought the same thing when I saw what I had created.I suppose that most of us didn't really know if we would like the ErgoDox. It's been an experiment for us all.

There are a few reasons I never seriously considered the Kinesis. Keep in mind I never tried one so I could be wrong. Also, just because it may not be right for me doesn't mean that I don't think it's a great design. My biggest reason is that I think the key wells would be too confining for my hands. Some days I have to type differently because of hand problems and I think the design would force text book hand positioning. I also think the tenting and skewed position will be more comfortable for my needs on the ErgoDox. Plus it was a great learning opportunity and a lot of fun building it.

Now I am a bit curious on how far do u guys keep the ErgoDox apart? I actually keep it quite close together. Doesn't feel that comfortable if it put it far apart.

I think in theory the only thing that matters is that they align with your forearms (so your wrists are straight). If you keep them close together, I imagine you'll want to tilt them inwards to match your arm alignment; personally, I have mine lined up with the armrests on my desk chair.

Which, by the way, is AWESOME because it frees up a damn acre of desk space in place it matters most: right in front of me.